High clearance sprayers are becoming increasing popular for agricultural spraying. These units are quite expensive and have a limited utility so that for much of the year a large investment remains idle.
To address this problem, it has been proposed to use a high lift vehicle frame for raising road vehicles to a height suitable for use as a high clearance sprayer. One such proposal is disclosed in Meiners U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,805, issued Dec. 17, 1991.
The frame disclosed in the Meiners patent is a rigid frame on which a pickup truck rests with its road tires. The front tires fit into rotatable sockets linked to wheel carrying front legs on the frame for steering purposes. The rear tires rest on rollers, which are connected to rear drive wheels carried on rear legs of the frame. In the preferred embodiment, the truck frame is fastened to the frame by a single hold-down anchor. A second embodiment uses a more positive drive with gear boxes and drive shafts to drive the rear frame wheels from the rear vehicle wheels. With this system, the rigid frame will not allow the ground wheels of the converter to follow uneven ground contours, making both driving and steering problematic on an uneven surface.
The present invention relates to certain improvements in converters of this type.